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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26873302">Thoughts of You Consume</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothertimemaybe/pseuds/anothertimemaybe'>anothertimemaybe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Alex Rider (TV 2020), Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode s01e05, First Meetings, M/M, Point Blanc, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Tension</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:34:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26873302</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothertimemaybe/pseuds/anothertimemaybe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex encounters a stranger on his way back from dinner. </p><p>...</p><p>Or perhaps a slight canon divergence of that scene in episode 5.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Yassen Gregorovich &amp; Alex Rider, Yassen Gregorovich/Alex Rider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>68</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thoughts of You Consume</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex was the last to finish his food. He was alone, but for a single guard, in the large grandiose -yet ugly- dining come common room as he put away his plate and the lights clanked off two at a time.</p><p>He'd been distracted all dinner. The feeling of being watched as he'd gone into this room tingled under his skin and poked at his senses telling him there was something he was missing. Something important.</p><p>The clockwork movements of the other table and the contrast of Laura before and after her cough had done nothing but add to his sense of unease.</p><p>The most frustrating thing was that there was utterly no reason for this other than the crawling on the back of his neck and a dark shadow glimpsed earlier.</p><p>Alex decided that enough was enough and he was letting the dark shadows and dull sinister energy of this place get to him. He was being irrational, he thought as he stepped out of the room. He needed to calm down and focus on finding his uncle's killer.</p><p>As he approached the hallway, a figure emerged from a door at the side. A man dressed all in black. One Alex did not recognize but the tingle at the back of his neck increased tenfold.</p><p>He walked swiftly, surely. Something told him that this man was deadly.</p><p>Then, having spotted Alex, he slowed to a halt looking right at him.</p><p>His face was cool, calm but for a slight hint of a frown as he scanned Alex from bottom to top.</p><p>Something about it was calculating and Alex felt stripped bare. A million times more uneasy than he had been previously. All his instincts screamed that this was a predator, with his flat dark eyes and hands curled ready to spring into motion at any second. The man's jacket was also loose enough to hide any number of weapons. His senses were screaming at him to run. But Alex always tended to ignore these instincts anyway.</p><p>Instead he scrutinized the man right back. He seemed very out of place in the school. First off, he was not wearing the uniform of the guards or -visibly- carrying a gun. Secondly, the way he held himself was an age away from the grunts Alex had encountered and something about him was feline, deadly, made Stellenbosch and Grief look like cardboard cut out villains next to a jaguar with sleek pounded muscle and flesh scarred from past battles. And scarred this man was. There was a messy scar running down his cheek, the mangled flesh just visible in the dull yellow lights. Alex couldn't help but wonder how he had got it.</p><p>The man was wearing nondescript clothes. All black. No defining labels or unique styles. Just a black coat down to mid-thigh with a dark top, shoes and trousers. If someone were to ask Alex to describe what he had been wearing it would have been no use to anyone.</p><p>The man's stare was intense. Dark eyes and dangerous energy entirely focused on him. Alex shoved down another rush of fight or flight adrenaline and instead spoke.</p><p>'Can I help you?'</p><p>The man's attention grew impossibly more laser-like, his gaze had finished wandering up Alex's body and his eyes were now boring into his.</p><p>'Alex…..' the man dragged out thickly with an accent Alex recognised as something european but couldn't place his finger on further.</p><p> He stepped closer to Alex, his gaze never leaving his and Alex felt like the stranger could see right through him and he half expected him to say Rider. For his cover to be busted. </p><p>'...Friend' the man finished, the second word almost sounding like a question. </p><p>Alex held back a shudder. The way he looked at him was almost like he recognised him and his tone just added to it. His gaze was almost a physical thing, Alex's hairs were standing up in response to its attention on his flesh.</p><p>The man's head was tilted forwards as he came ever closer. Alex studied his short, dark, unstyled hair. The thickness of his brows. He looked somewhat ageless but Alex was guessing maybe mid to late thirties.</p><p>The stranger grew closer and closer to him, head tilting as his dark eyes slowly pulled along Alex's features, taking in every detail of his face until the man was very firmly inside his personal space. The gaze lasted uncomfortably long on his lips and Alex wetted them self consciously as it moved on.</p><p>Alex couldn't keep eye contact any longer, his chest felt oddly tight. He glanced at the man's lashes. A vague part of him noted that they were very thick and gently curved, almost feminine and definitely unique in a man. Then Alex's attention was caught by some movement and he darted a look down at this stranger's thick chiselled lips... he quickly regained eye contact before the man could spot where he had been looking.</p><p>His eyes were very deep, serious, cold, set under heavy lids and, as they instrusively stared into Alex's, every inch of his skin prickled under the man's scrutiny. He felt utterly unsettled like he should know him but there was not an inkling of recognition on his own end. It was frustrating, like reaching for a memory that wasn't there.</p><p>'Who are you?' Alex asked.</p><p>The man's mouth opened then he appeared to change his mind as his lips sealed into an amused expression. The movement puckering his scar.</p><p>He nodded slightly and his mouth twitched, seemingly coming to a decision.</p><p>'Just..visiting' he said, accent catching on the words as he pulled away. Some of the tension that was thickening the air like oozing molasses cut away suddenly.</p><p>The man glanced once more at his face, like he was committing it to memory or something then he turned his back on Alex and started to walk away.</p><p>Alex felt a surge of annoyance. He'd become very sick of this in the past week. Being dismissed for reasons varying all the way from his age to his financial status. And this stranger had gotten completely under his skin- Alex didn't know what he'd done to lose or even gain his attention which added to the fuel even more and the irritating non answer lit a spark of anger.</p><p>'What kind of response is that?' Alex snarked.</p><p>The man paused and turned around, letting out a low chuckle that bounced off of the walls and vibrated through Alex's bones.</p><p>The man quirked a smirk, eyes glimmering before mumbling something to himself.</p><p>'Sorry' Alex growled. 'I didn't catch that.'</p><p>'Really it's best you didn't little Alex' murmured the man, his expression cooling into something pensive.</p><p>'Little-' Alex pulled a face of disbelief. No one had ever called him little before. And certainly not a dark handsome stranger who radiated trouble and was barely taller than Alex was.</p><p>Alex felt suddenly extremely out of his depth. He had no idea what was going on and he got the sudden impression that he was already neck deep in rapidly rising water with no way to swim.</p><p>The man slowly drifted over to Alex again, the atmosphere thickening with every step and Alex's breath caught in his throat. His body once again screaming at him to flee, warring with his reckless curiosity and illogical thrill at the danger of the situation.</p><p>'You want to know who I am' stated the man as he came to a rest in front of Alex, even closer than before.</p><p>Alex looked at the detail of his skin, the curve of his lashes, the crease of his lids and nodded, throat suddenly very dry. Then he shook himself free and scowled a little. </p><p>'Yes'</p><p>The man's lips quirked into a smile, eyes glinting amusedly as he reached out slowly, Alex was frozen in place, nervously tracking his hand as it came to rest on his cheek, before it stroked down his face. </p><p>The man's fingers were gently calloused, rough and cool against Alex's slightly flushed skin. They were almost reverent in their movement and, in a way to deal with the shock of the situation, he found himself wondering again if he had forgotten this man because surely he knew him. No utter stranger would want to touch Alex like this, especially so gently.</p><p>Alex's lips parted softly, against his will and this man's intense eyes drifted down and focused upon them, shortly followed by a finger which swiftly brushed across their surface, gnawing a hole in Alex's stomach that he didn't want to examine.</p><p>'So reckless, so pretty' muttered the man and Alex jerked away from his touch, face burning, not sure what to do and settling on his favourite defence: words.</p><p>'Are you going to give a name or should I just leave?'</p><p>The stranger chuckled, slightly shaking his head almost fondly. </p><p>'Yassen'</p><p>Then he turned abruptly on his heel and had almost reached the door by the time Alex gained enough sense to even twitch.</p><p>'No last name?' he called after him.</p><p>The man, Yassen, glanced back. </p><p>'Another time maybe.'</p><p>Then he was gone, leaving Alex flushed, tingling all over and thoroughly rattled with the ghost of a touch haunting his cheek and lips.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've got an idea of what Yassen inaudibly mumbled but do you...<br/>Hope you enjoyed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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